A hero gone missing
by Amy Cherryclaw
Summary: Empire attacks to Rebels' new base and Luke is captured. Leia and Han rescue him, but is Luke still mentally alright after all this? AU, post-ESB. Rating for violence. Chapter XVIII updated 6.5.
1. Prologue When things go wrong, BADLY!

**Prologue: When things go wrong, BADLY!**

Lightsabers clashed together as Luke ducked just in time to avoid Vader's lightsaber's hot, blazing blade from slicing him half. He reversed towards thin sensor bridge behind him and was stepping to it, when Vader make it through Luke's defence and cut through his wrist. Luke shrieked in pain and raked for the nearest firm spot with his left hand. He grasped to sensor bar behind him and reversed carefully to end of the thin bridge.  
"Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father." Vader stated pompously as he approached Luke.  
"He told me enough! He told me you killed him!" Luke yelled back.  
"No, Luke. I am your father."  
"No. No, that's impossible." Luke said sceptically.  
"Search your feelings and you'll know it's true."  
Luke watched downwards and decided that it was better die than turn to dark side. He leaned backwards and loosed his grip from the bar. The last sound that echoed in the abyss was Luke's desperate scream.

"No!" Luke suddenly woke up.  
"It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was…" Luke repeated aloud, trying to calm himself down. But it wasn't a dream. It had been the most horrible moment of Luke's life. He rose from his bed and looked out from window. _It's a beautiful sunrise, isn't it?_ he thought, until he realised that it was almost midday already – and the glow came from north. He grabbed his macrobinoculars from table and looked towards glowing, red horizon with them. Luke was shocked by what he saw, and he almost dropped the binoculars from his hands. He couldn't believe his eyes. The Empire had attacked to the base. But… An alert wasn't on. That meant that there were spies in the base. But at that moment, it wasn't Luke's concern. Now he just had to get out of the base. Luke just took his helmet and was storming out of the room, when he noticed his comlink beeping on table. He took it and answered.  
"Skywalker."  
_"Luke, where in the hell are you! We are supposed to be far away from here!"  
_"I'm sorry, Wedge, but I just woke up. The alert has gone off here."  
_"Get your ass over here. I told your droid to warm up the engines of your X-wing and prepare for takeoff."  
_The line clicked silent and Luke took again his helmet from table and opened the door of his room. At the same moment he leaped to left barely avoiding the lasershot from hitting to his head, and instead it hit the wall behind Luke.  
_Damn it!_ Luke cursed in his mind and kicked the door to close it, broke the window and jumped out. He ran to the hangar and stepped in. It was silent in the hangar, except small humming coming from the pre-warmed engines of Luke's X-wing. He walked to his ship and climbed ladders up to cockpit. He had just dropped himself to the cockpit when he heard a laser pistol going off above him. Luke smacked a button to close the canopy, secured his harnesses and turned on repulsion lift. He lifted the fighter into air and flied out from hangar.

Luke sighed in relief, because there were no Empire's TIE-fighters in the atmosphere, but when he rose to space, he was amazed; there were no ships inside Dantooine's gravity shaft, no Empire's or Alliance's. While Luke calmed down and told Artoo to count the shortest hyperspace jump to rendezvous point, he's left shoulder suddenly started to ache. Badly. He had not time to think about it, because Artoo had the coordinates already. Luke pulled the hyperdrive slide toward him and stars reached into streaks around his fighter.

Now when Luke was finally safe, he could check, what had caused the ache on his shoulder. Thought, he just had to take a small look at his shoulder to figure out what was wrong. Luke winced; he had a nasty hole in his left shoulder - caused by a blaster shot -, which bled heavily. Luke quickly had to figure out how to stop the wound from bleeding, or he would bleed to death really fast.  
"Artoo, what kind of first-aid kit do we have here?" he asked.  
Artoo's whistle didn't sound very promising, and Luke forgot even his last hope of patching the wound, when he read translation from a small screen.  
"Well, then we just have to do something else."  
Luke sighed, closed his eyes and sent a silent plea for help, what carried all the way to the other end of the galaxy. Luke's vision started to become fuzzy and he realized that he was going to pass out, but he still had enough time to hear Artoo's anxious scream before he fell to unconscious.

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Author's note:  
So, this is my first English story. Later chapters are going to be as "short" as this is, so I try to update this every time I get a chapter translated(yeah, I have to translate this from Finnish to English, because I originally wroted this on Finnish). I hope you liked this chapter.  
Oops, I just noticed that this text looks a lot more solid here than in MS Word. Just complain to me if it's too solid...


	2. I think its Leia to the rescue

Oh great, I forget the disclaimer from chapter I, so:  
_George Lucas owns SW, not me. I don't make any profit with this story. I don't even want to._

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Miache: Thanks! I'm pleased that someone reviewed so fast, because at my homepage I didn't get any reviews at all.

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**Chapter I: I think it's Leia to the rescue – once again…**

Leia walked concernedly along the main hallway of _Home One_. The last X-wing squadrons had arrived half an hour earlier and Luke hadn't been within them. Wedge Antilles had told that Luke had lagged behind, but just 15 minutes at most. Nobody had heard about Luke since that and Leia had become really worried. She had decided to ask from Wedge himself, what was really keeping Luke. Leia arrived to a turbolift, stepped in and pushed a button of crew's deck. When doors opened again, Leia stepped out and started to think, what to say to Wedge. Preoccupied, she went down the corridor. As she came to an intersection of two corridors, she was so preoccupied that she stumbled with Wedge, who was coming from right-side corridor.  
"Ouch!" Leia cried out and tottered back.  
"I'm sorry, Leia, I didn't notice you." Wedge said and helped Leia up.  
"That's okay, Wedge. Actually, I was looking for you."  
Wedge sighed. "Are you going to question me about Luke's whereabouts, too? I've already told everything in my official report. I hope you're not thinking me as a liar."  
"Not at all! I just thought, that you left something unsaid when you made that report, something that you didn't think was important." Leia said, looking repentant.  
Wedge, though, opened his mouth and started to tell what happened: "When I had shut down the comlink after my discussion with Luke, we confronted small team of Empire's stormtroopers. We won, of course, but when I switched on my comlink to hurry Luke, I heard just a voice of shattering glass and some voices of laserfire. I didn't see any sign of Luke, when we flied out from that hangar."  
Leia listened carefully picking up useful information, until a voice started to ring in her head, which she had heard just once before, at Bespin, when Luke had been in danger of life.  
"…Luke is probably in trouble, in worst case, he's prison to Empire or dead." Wedge ended his unofficial report.  
"He's still alive, but in big trouble. Thanks for your information, but now, if you'll excuse me, I must find Han."

Leia went to hangar that was allocated to _Millennium Falcon_ to check out, if Han was there. She stepped in to _Falcon_, but she had to avoid clearly indignant Chewie, who stormed out from _Falcon_.  
"Han? Are you here?" Leia asked as she turned to the main hold. She heard a loud slam and some Correllian curses beneath floor level.  
"I was in the maintenance tunnels", Han said as he climbed up from a hatch in the floor and started to rub his forehead. Leia almost started to laugh, when she realized that Han had hit his head to the edge of the hatch.  
After closing the hatch Han asked: "So, have you heard anything about Luke yet?"  
"Not according to the formal information routes." Leia answered and sat down.  
Han rose his eyebrow asking:"Do you have informal routes, too? I thought you do everything formally."  
Leia rolled her eyes in disbelief; either Han was teasing her or he was stupid. "Actually, almost all of our info routes _are_ informal. But that wasn't my point; I know, where Luke is."  
"How? Anybody else doesn't seem to know."  
"Remember, when we escaped from Bespin, and I said that I know where Luke is?"  
Han seemed to think awhile and then he said: "Somehow. Is he in trouble again?"  
"Apparently. How much time it takes to get _Falcon_ ready to flight?" Leia said as she stood up and clouted the floor with the tip of her boot.  
"Maybe half an hour. I just have to fill the storages and tell this to Chewie."  
Leia looked at him questioningly. "Is he mad at something?"  
"Well, I think he owns his life now to you and Luke, too. He didn't like that nobody has heard anything about Luke."  
Leia was amused; she had always thought that wookies own their lives just to one person at a time.  
"I'll come back in half an hour." she said and went to pack her stuffs.

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A/N:  
So, it's the second chapter today. I'm almost finished(well, actually I'm in halfway) translating chp. III, and I hope I can update it tomorrow here(it's over midnight here in Finland, so I can say "later today"). I fixed some typos in A/N of chp I, because I try always write proper English... and so on. I explained it already.

That "Han hitting his head on something"-idea came from TCW s. 2 ep. 2(and you might know where that came), and originally I had Lando in here, so that Chewie could hit him or something. I changed him to Han, because I don't like Han very much, and I like Lando even less, but the relation between Han and Leia made it easier to write some later chapters, where Leia gets hurt.


	3. The same old enemy

**Chapter II: The same old enemy**

"Sir, the blockade cruiser has captured a Rebel fighter", was shouted behind admiral Yularen's back at the commando bridge of star destroyer _Resolute_.  
He turned and said: "Excellent. Tell them that we will receive this one. General Pellaeon, inform Lord Vader about our capture and tell him, that he can begin the interrogations."  
Pellaeon gulped indistinguishable and said: "Yes, sir." Then he turned at his heels and walked away.

Pellaeon watched carefully, when the X-wing was pulled in the hangar of Resolute. It hadn't chafed against its capturers, which showed that pilot was completely succumbed to the situation. _A wise man_, Pellaeon thought. Lord Vader seemed to be more satisfied than usual, though he had pretty emotionless face. X-wing was now firmly attached to the floor and the astrodroidunit suddenly started to whistle, buzz and beep, when Vader ordered somebody to put a restraining bolt to it. When the droid had been shut down, unidentified soldier from the strike forces rose alongside the ship and looked in.  
"The prisoner is unconscious." he ascertained.  
"Good. Check out his wounds, patch them up with F-bacta and take him to a detention cell."  
"Right away, Lord Vader." was resounded from at least six troopers' mouths. When they lifted the prisoner up from the X-wings cockpit, Pellaeon boggled; the prisoner had a hole in his left shoulder – probably caused by a laser shot. _But still, why did Vader order to patch it with F-bacta? It's used almost never. Vader have to have some own plans to this prisoner._

***

Luke suddenly woke up and opened his eyes.  
_Where am I? Nothing hurts; does that mean that I'm dead?_ He rose up and boggled; he seemed to be in an Imperial detention cell. _What am I doing in here? I have to get out of here, as fast as possible. _Luke didn't have much time to think, because soon two stormtroopers entered the room, cuffed him and took him to interrogation. That time, Luke didn't chafe against them, because he actually knew that by chafing against them he would just make the situation worse.

"And I'm telling you nothing!" Luke shouted, getting new, more painful stab to his arm.  
_I won't tell them anything – even if Vader came and choked me with two hands._ The interrogation droid stabbed another painful stab to Luke's arm, which finally caused Luke to fall unconscious.

This continued for at least few days; Luke was taken to interrogation, but he didn't tell anything and he was stunned. When Luke once again woke up on floor of his cell after very painful interrogation, he barely could pull himself up to so called "bed" of his cell.  
In this interrogation somebody had got a bit excited and started to beat Luke with electric whip, which had caused many red burns and open, bleeding cuts all over Luke's body. Cuts ached terribly and Luke had hard time trying to find a position where his back wouldn't hurt so much.  
He started to await soldiers to come and get him to next session, but when the door opened and Luke raised his gaze from wall to entrants, he was shocked; the lord Vader himself stepped in.

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A/N:  
Well, that was chapter III. I hope you liked it. I'm not sure if Yularen and Pellaeon are going to show up later in this story, but if I write a sequel to this story(what is actually very likely, because I want to write some sort of darkLuke story, and this story fits with it pretty well), they are very likely going to show up there.

Next chapter is both Luke's and Leia's POV, and that might be that chapter what causes the rating go up, but I'm not sure about it.


	4. Torture

Thanks for rewiewers!

I love dance: Good that you like it, and I'm trying to update everytime when I get a chapter translated. Luke is rescued in... few chapters, if I counted it right.

ILDV: Thanks!

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**Chapter III: Torture**

Leia rubbed her temples and eyes as she tried to stay alerted and awake. _Falcon_ had been silent for over an hour now; only Chewie's random growls cut the silence. Leia heard steps behind her and turned in relief around. She could go to sleeping and give pilot's seat back to Han. Sudden wheeling after a long immobility though got Leia's head to go bit confused. At the same moment Leia got the worst headache in her whole life, a lot worse than last time when Luke has been in trouble. The combined effect of headache and dizziness got Leia to lose her balance, and she stumble at the door of the cockpit. She would have fallen onto the floor, unless Han had grabbed her into his arms.  
"Thanks", Leia said after getting back to her foot.  
"Are you alright?" Han asked worriedly. He hadn't used to see Leia stumbling around.  
"I'm fine; I just need a little rest. Luckily you came already", Leia answered and wiped some dust away from her white dress.  
"Well, at least we have this…" Han started, but stopped when Leia's gaze became absentminded, her face turned to a not-so-well-hidden grimace of pain and she fell to the floor screaming and squeezing her head with her hands.  
"Leia, what happened? Leia!" Han tried to shake Leia to wake her up.  
Suddenly Leia's eyes opened and she screamed: "Shut down the hyperdrive engine!" before she passed out. Chewie obliviously had heard Leia's voice, because Han could feel the agitation of _Falcon_ decreasing.  
When the ship was in normal space few seconds later, Chewie yelled horrified something and Han rushed to see what caused a wookie to go so upset. Han stepped in to the cockpit and saw immediately, what was their problem. In front of them were two Victory-class star destroyers and the super star destroyer Executor. Han shut down the sub-light engine to make they wouldn't draw Imperials' caution to themselves.  
"Don't do anything before I come back. Let's keep as much distance to them as possible", he told to Chewie before he went back to the corridor.

Han lifted carefully Leia's body to his arms and carried her to her bed. He checked Leia's pulse and tried then to wake her up.  
"Leia, wake up" he said and shook carefully Leia's shoulder. Leia mumbled something and opened her eyes.  
"Morning. What happened to you?" Han asked when Leia rose to a sitting position.  
"I really don't know. I just remember that I got a headache when I stumbled," she told and started to rub her forehead. "Now it's continuing, and it's even worse than last time. And, as if that wasn't enough, my face and hands feel like I'm burning. Somehow I think this has something to do with Luke."  
Han helped Leia to stand up and said: "If Luke is Empire's prison, we've probably found him. Come."  
Han and Leia went to the cockpit where Leia proved Han's suspicions right; Luke was onboard one of smaller star destroyers.

***

Luke winced in agony when the interrogation droid injected pain-increasing liquids into his forearm. Vader stepped in front of Luke and forced him to watch into his eyes by tweaking Luke's face towards him.  
"Tell the location of your base or I will squeeze that information out of you", he said, accenting every single word he said.  
Luke smiled pungently and said: "I've told nothing before. What makes you think I will tell you now?"  
He already waited to fall unconsciousness, but when Vader slapped him to his face and all went black, his mind was full of pain and anxiety instead of peaceful, painless blackness.  
He looked around him and saw nothing but white. He was standing there alone, with no weapons. _(What was he expecting? He was Empire's prisoner; he wasn't even supposed to have a weapon...)_ Vader appeared suddenly in front of him, ignited his _blue_ lightsaber and rose it to an attack position. He struck and Luke tried to dodge, but his body felt like it was made of solid rock. He couldn't escape and felt how Vader's lightsaber halved Luke's body.

Luke almost screamed as he woke up. He was still tied firmly into the interrogation table and he could see Vader from his corner of the eye. He sighed in relief when Vader walked pass him and towards the door, but then Vader stopped, turned back to Luke and ignited his lightsaber.  
_Well, at least it's red and not blue... _Luke thought.  
Luke realized that he was alone in the room with Vader, when Vader said: "My son, it has become clear that you won't tell your information by normal interrogation methods, but will you tell when I have burned your skin like I did to your sister?" Luke sighed in horror and disbelief; he didn't have a sister, unless...  
"Luke, your feelings betray you. Your sister is a person that you would never have suspected to be." Luke tried to hide his thoughts and remember his earliest memories, where his sister might have been. He took a scared breathe when he realized who Vader was talking about.  
"Good, I don't have to dig _that_ information from your mind. But still..." Vader said accepting and brought his lightsaber close to Luke's face. Luke had reverted if he had been able to do so, but he was still tightly tied to the table. Vader brought the lightsaber's blade so close to Luke's face that it leaved really bad burns to Luke's face. Vader did this also to Luke's arms, and finished the torture by burning a large interstice to Luke's left forearm, causing a pain that finally forced Luke to pass out.

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A/N:  
So, that was chapter IV, I hope you liked it! Next chapter is going to be (again) Leia's and Luke's POV. And I think I kick Wedge out of here, but I'll change that at weekend, when I have more time. Please review!


	5. An easy mission

Thanks for reviewers!

**ILVD**: Thanks, but next time, could you tell a bit more; like, what was good, and what you may not have liked?

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Chapter IV: An easy mission**

"Leia, are you sure this is going to work? I don't think that Vader is going to fall into the same trap twice." Han said as he headed _Falcon_ towards the star destroyer slightly separated from others.  
"Vader may as well be anywhere else in this galaxy. This _is_ going to work." Leia answered him while keying some codes to navigator's panel.  
"Are the shafts open?" she asked and stood up and walked to the corridor.  
"Yeah, they are. You know where to kick?" Han shouted to her.  
"You've showed it me so many times that it's hard to forget. Chewie, you are going into this shaft, I and Han will go to the other." Han heard from the corridor.  
Chewie went to the shaft and pulled the lid over it to close himself inside.  
"Okay. Navicomputer has false information and sub-light engine works on half-power. In which hangar are we going in?" Han asked when Leia came back to the cockpit. She sat on the co-pilot's chair, closed her eyes and pointed then that lonely star destroyer they had seen earlier.  
"There. Luke is onboard that ship", she said. "We must be careful. It seems to me that there is some heavy traffic coming from that ship."  
"This is suspicious situation. It's like they're evacuating that." Han said, studying their target a bit closer.  
"Well, at least there's less troopers coming after us." Leia said. "We're in. Let's hide while we still can." She added, when the head of Falcon went through the race shield of the hangar.

When Han pulled the shaft's lid over it, it became dead silent. About one minute later they started to hear steps over their heads. The first group included too many troopers, but the second was just small enough; just two soldiers.  
Han raised the lid and killed the troopers with accurate shots to their necks. They rose up from shafts and Leia and Han dressed to the soldiers' uniforms.  
"It's empty. Let's go." Han said after peeking to the hangar. They stepped out from the ship and took Chewie as a "prisoner" to the detention centre. When they were stepping to the corridor that would lead them to the turbolift, Han heard a _very_ familiar voice of an astromechdroid from a closet to his left. He opened the closed and amazed; Artoo came out from the closet – _Wow, it's in one piece!_ Han thought – and joined the group. At the first computer access they found, Leia asked Artoo to find out where Luke was.  
"AA-32. We'll go in there, then." she said after reading the results.

*******

Luke woke up slowly after the latest interrogation. The floor of his cell was cold under his back but he couldn't get up. When he finally got himself up from the floor, the pain in his face, hands and back almost caused him to pass out again. He barely had enough power to take his brown jacket and dress it. It would at least prevent the burns in his back touching directly to the cold floor.  
The door of his cell sputtered as it opened and Luke saw a soldier keeping a wookie in place outside the door. The second trooper stepped in and Luke thought: _Not yet, I can barely stand up..._ before he passed out and collapsed to the floor.

*******

Leia gulped when she saw Luke falling onto the floor. She took the helmet off and turned Luke onto his back.  
"Luke, wake up!" she shouted, trying to get Luke awake. He didn't answer; actually, he didn't give any signs of life _at all_. Leia checked Luke's pulse and sighed in relief; at least he was still alive. But his breathing had become unsteady; they had to get him to _Falcon_'s medbay as soon as possible.  
At the same moment, the ship under their feet started to shake and Han yelled her from the corridor: "Leia, take Luke! We have to get out of here!"  
Leia lifted Luke's heavy body up and pulled his right hand over her shoulders. Suddenly, the sounds of firefight started to echo in the corridor and Leia glanced out.  
Han was shooting the troopers that had somehow appeared to the other end of the corridor. Leia threw her gun to Chewie, who also started to shoot troopers.  
As suddenly as it had begun, the shooting stopped and Han shouted: "Let's go! Come before more of those have a chance to appear."  
Leia put her helmet back to her head and took Luke's flight jacket and helmet from the corner of the cell.

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A/N:  
Ah, "AA-32" strikes back! I just had to use that piece in here, because that made things a LOT easier...  
Well, now when I have fallen to the dark path of highlighting some of the words, I must explain where I use _Italic_: in thoughts, ships' names and those accent-needing/important words. And maybe in comlink talk... Yeah, I'm going to change that, too...

And that means that I have to repost 3 chapters! And of cource, copy those author's notes from there(I write them straight to here, so they are not in the chapters you find from my computer(actually, from my memory stick...)...) BUT, anyway, sorry that this chapter is late... And by the way... Please, review! That's the biggest reward I get from this!

Next chapter is from... Leia's and... VADER's(!) POV. Sounds crazy, I know, but you'll see... Damn, I realized that that chapter doesn't sound good at all when you think those Vader-parts... but, anyway...

AANNDD!!! I've decided that I'm definitely going to write that sequel to this story. Originally it was totally different story, but the opportunity to use these both is just too temptating... *insert mad laughing*  
But I have to admit, that without the story Whispers of daybreak, written by xxJedi Knight Blazexx, I wouldn't probably be thinking that at all...  
The sequel is going to include some unpredictable things, like the fact that persons *beep* and *beep* are alive... WHAT?! Do you really think I would give you spoilers about a story that I haven't even started to write...  
But back to this story, Vader is not burned, and that continues in sequel, and finally, I have a name for it: "At the end of everything", but actually, it's going to be just a start... That's all I can tell you yet. Except, it's going to be DarkLuke/DarkLEIA-story, and you may know what I think you're thinking: _oh dammit, it's no good idea to use darkleia... _But for my opinion, that story is going to be VERY interesting... Okay, if I stop this drivelling and let you go to read other people's fics...


	6. A trap

A/N: (4-11-2010) When did this chapter disappeared?

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**Chapter V****: A trap**

There were no "surprises" in their way to Falcon, but at the door of hangar, everything went suddenly wrong...  
"I'm hit!" Leia suddenly screeched and fell to the ground.  
"Where? Can you walk?" Han asked as Chewie shot the trooper who had shot Leia.  
"I don't think I can. It hit my knee." Leia said, trying to overcome the pain and get up.  
"Okay, I will bolster you", Han said and helped Leia up. "Chewie, take Luke, I must help Leia. I don't think there are any other traps in here." he continued.  
Artoo was already at the _Falcon_'s entrance and the others rushed inside. Han slammed a button to close _Falcon_'s ramp and helped Leia to main hold and told her not to go anywhere.  
_Do you even think I can?_ Leia thought as she took helmet off her head and saw Chewie running to cockpit. Obliviously he had carried Luke to medbay and now he went to help Han get _Falcon_ out of here.  
She tried to get out of that white stormtrooper's armour to see her wound, but the pain in her leg was too much and she passed out before she actually could even try.

Han rushed to the cockpit and slammed a button to start up _Falcon_'s engines. He had felt the star destroyer shaking again and he feared it was going into hyperspace. Chewie rushed inside right after him and Han lift the ship into air and flied out from the hangar. Chewie growled something that Han couldn't quite understand - _Weird, I've always understand what he says… _- but it didn't actually matter, because Chewie almost overburdened the shields, just before a massive fireball ate the whole ship.

*******

Vader felt like he could laugh as he watched his old flagship _Resolute_ disappearing into huge red ball of fire and melting metal. Skywalker and his companions exploded within it.  
Suddenly Vader heard steps behind him and turned around, washing the almost-smile off from his face. He had outmaneuvered general Pellaeon, who swallowed so lightly that Vader couldn't see it, and said: "Lord Vader, the Emperor required you to take contact with him."  
"And so I will. I don't want to be interrupted during the next standard hour. If somebody does so, he will suffer the consequences." Vader said and left the bridge, his cape fluttering behind him.

Vader bowed deeply as the Emperor's hologram picture appeared in front him.  
"Rise, lord Vader." he heard Emperor saying and stood up.  
"Have you captured that Skywalker brat yet? I can feel a disturbance in the Force."  
"Yes, my lord. I have captured him, but he refuses all our interrogation methods. It is impossible to get any information that we don't yet know out of him."  
"So clearly you decided to take your own methods to use. Where is he now?" the Emperor said, disapproving.  
"He is in his cell, unconscious." Vader answered.  
"Take him to Coruscant immediately."  
"Yes, my lord." Vader bowed again and Emperor's picture disappeared.  
The doors swooshed open behind him and Vader roared to him: "What is it? It's better be important!"  
"Well… It seems that _Millennium Falcon_ survived the explosion of _Resolute_. We have no signs of life onboard it." non-commissioned officer explained, obliviously scared.  
_No way! Oh sith… or rather, Oh jedi_, Vader thought.  
He walked pass officer, back to the bridge and said: "Surround it. If it tries to escape, blow it up immediately. In other case, monitor it about hour or two. Then we will leave it here."


	7. Damages

A/N: (4-6-2010)I decided to connect these two chapters together, so there will be at least one chapter less.

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**Chapter VI**** & VII: Damages**

About an hour after the explosion of _Resolute_, _Falcon_ seemed to an outside watcher totally silent, but actually it was slowly waking up from unconsciousness. It took many hours before _Falcon_ was operational so Vader's fleet started to spread and left _Falcon_ alone in space.

Leia awoke and opened slowly her eyes; she had fallen to the floor. She rose carefully up, trying to maintain her balance and testing, if her leg was healthy enough to carry her weight. Her leg wasn't well enough to walk properly, but somehow she limped to the cockpit of Falcon. She was shocked when she opened the door; there was freezing cold in the cockpit, thick front windows had cracked and the worst of all: Han and Chewie lolled in their seats, both unconscious.  
"Han! Han, wake up!" Leia shouted and shook Han's shoulder to awake him.

Han felt like he had just been hit by a spice freighter. He slowly opened his eyes and noticed that his sight was confusingly blurred and he could just barely see that someone was standing before him.  
When his hearing returned, he heard Leia shouting his name. Han tried to tell her to stop shouting but only sound that left his mouth was dull cough. His sight started to sharpen, but then it blurred again.  
He heard Leia's voice telling him to stay in place. Han felt Leia's hands at side of his head and suddenly pressure hit through his ears and he pass out for a moment.

Leia waited agonistically for Han to wake up; if the trick her father taught to her didn't work after all… Han opened his eyes and Leia sighed in relief.  
"Are you alright?" she asked.  
"Yeah, I think so." Han said in puzzlement. "What did you do?" he asked and tried to stand up.  
"You've been hit by a pressure wave, likely caused by that star destroyer, what I think has exploded. That trick is used to retrieve hearing to its victims. My father once taught it to me."  
Han slumped back to his seat and sighed. He looked out and said: "Hopefully those aren't going to try anything", pointed to star destroyers around_ Falcon_ and continued: "Because _Falcon_ isn't going anywhere for many hours, if it goes at all. And I can't even start to repair her, because I'm dizzy!" Han hit in his anger one wallpanel and the front window cracked a bit more.  
"Where's the fixing mass of that?" Leia asked as she stood up and limped to the corridor.  
"I don't remember it straightaway, but I'll come looking for it when this damned dizziness fades out."  
Leia nodded to Han and limped away to find Luke and get some medicine to her knee.

Leia limped to medbay, but before she opened the door, she saw Artoo hurrying towards her and whistling in the way. Artoo opened the door, that had apparently been locked and Leia stepped in. Luke had fallen to the floor and lied there, unmoving. Leia almost thought that he was dead, but then Luke breathed weakly and his eyes flied open.  
"Luke…?" Leia asked carefully as she limped towards Luke's otherwise lifeless body. Suddenly his face twisted to grimace and his limbs started to shake and then convulse. Leia watched in terror when froth started to pour down from Luke's mouth.  
Leia was incapacitated for a moment, but then she sought through all the drawers to find crippling medicine to stop Luke from convulsing.  
She stabbed it into Luke's shoulder and his convulsing immediately settled to shaking and then to trembling. The froth stopped to pour and Luke's face relaxed, but his eyes were still fully open.  
Leia closed them carefully and then lifted him back to bed. She lifted bed's balustrade up that Luke wouldn't hurt himself by falling again. She told Artoo to watch after him. When she was leaving the room, she remembered her own knee and put a bacta patch to it and took some painkillers. She heard that Luke's breathing was uneasy and weak, so she put an oxygen mask to his face.

*******

Luke was dreaming; he saw himself as a years older, fully-trained jedi. Then the scary part appeared; he took his lightsaber and slaughtered Rebel leaders, Han and Chewie. Luke saw himself bowing in front of Emperor, electrocuting Leia and three children.  
_All of them Leia's…_ Luke realized before he woke up.

Luke took breathe in anguish and opened his eyes. He saw nothing but dark and light spots, but he realized he was under bright light, but outside its spotlight seemed to be completely dark.  
"Luke…?!" Leia's dull voice echoed in his ears. Luke tried to outreach towards her, or even turn his head to see Leia's face. But he couldn't do anything; every place in his body hurt just too much.  
He heard Leia's voice saying: "I'll give you some more painkillers, you seem so anguished."  
_Is she giving me those painkillers, what makes me very sleepy?_ Luke thought. _Yeah, she gives me exactly them_. Luke's sight darkened as he fell asleep.

Leia sighed in relief when Luke shut his eyes and fell asleep. Artoo whistled sadly beside her.  
"Guard away. If he starts convulsing again, call me with intercom." Leia said and stepped out from the room. When she walked pass top hatch, what brought some unpleasant memories to her mind, she realized that she was staring at a can of window fixing mass attached to the wall. Leia carefully pulled the can and opened a box full of them, all unused. Leia smiled and took the biggest can and headed to the cockpit.  
"Han, I found that fixing mass. Good place you've chosen, by the way." she said as she stepped in.  
"Great, now let's fix this window before it shatters completely. Go and get another can while I start here."  
Leia got few cans more from the box and started to spread mass into windows. When they had finished, they had used five cans of fixing mass.

"Jeez, that was some work." Leia said as she wiped some sweat from her forehead.  
The cockpit had become freezing cold (even more than before), when _Falcon_'s earlier red-hot chassis had cooled down.  
"Let's start to work with engine. I think that that explosion might have broken it. Chewie, wake up." Han said and shook slightly wookie's shoulder. Chewie opened his eyes and growled something so fast that even Han had no idea what Chewie was talking about.  
"Chewie, try to do something to engines. I and Leia are trying to get communication- and life support systems back. And try to stay away from here cockpit, the heating is broken."


	8. Hero falls

**Chapter VIII: Hero falls**

"No, it's hopeless. Communications aren't going to work, it's totally broken." Leia said to Han who adjusted something with life support system.  
"Damn it! Ventilation is hardly working in cockpit and the whole ship is without heat."  
"Can we do anything to it?" Leia asked.  
When the last light in Falcon suddenly shut down, Leia turned one glowstick on and handed it to Han.  
"Thanks." he said as he took the stick and continued: "We _could_ get some of the heating back, if we can shut down all medbay's equipments. But that's not a good idea as long as Luke is unconscious."  
Leia sighed and said: "I'll go and check, is he already woken up." She took a new glowstick, turned it on and went to the main corridor.

Luke took a short breathe as he woke up. He had seen nightmare, once again. He opened his eyes; now there was completely dark, excluding Artoo's lights. Luke raised his head from the pillow and got himself into sitting position. He took the oxygen mask off from his face, lowered bed's balustrade and stood carefully up.  
Then he saw light of a glowstick coming from corridor just before Leia stepped in.  
"Luke!" she said surprised and hugged Luke really hard.  
"Ouch! Leia, don't press my left shoulder, it really hurts." Luke said and winced.  
"What happened to it?" Leia asked, though she saw clearly that part of Luke's jacket was burned.  
Luke had to think what was actually caused it; he had already almost forgotten where he had been coming from, when he was caught by Empire.  
"I… I was shot. It was an ambush, and I almost didn't make it off the planet." he said after thinking awhile. He sat back to edge of his bed and leaned his head to the wall; he felt terrible and dizzy and his head ached and shoulder throbbed.  
Leia looked at him asking: "Didn't they put anything to it?"  
"Well, definitely they put _something_ to it, because it felt alright when I was imprisonment."  
Leia terrified and said: "It must have been F-bacta!"  
"What?"  
"F-bacta. It is used to keep prisoners in "good" condition during the interrogations, if they are already injured. When the prisoner isn't needed anymore, bacta starts to release bad bacterium, what cause an infection. That bandage should be changed immediately!"  
Leia started to look for bacta bandages from closet and told Luke to take off his shirt.  
"It's really cold in here. Are the systems broken?" Luke asked after taking off his jacket  
"Han is trying to get the heating working, but to manage in that we have to shut down all equipments in here. And besides, it's not even…" Leia turned and dropped the bandage in her hands to the floor.  
The bandage in Luke's shoulder was almost black, what meant that the worst might already have happened; infection might have spread to Luke's body. Leia took the bandage and touched carefully Luke's forehead. It was searing hot.  
"Luke, how are you feeling? Do you feel weak?" Leia asked him. Luke nodded slightly absentmindedly and Leia helped him back to bed and changed quickly the bandage in his shoulder. The wound looked really nasty, it was still black after the shot and Leia could almost smell the ash.

* * *

Even the heroes are not invincible, let alone immortal. Leia knew this. Still he couldn't believe that _Luke was dying_. His breathing weakened sigh after sigh. Suddenly Luke's breathing stopped completely and Leia quailed; Was this it? Was Luke gone, forever?  
Then Luke's lungs gasped some air. Leia sighed in relief and attached Luke to breathing machine, just to be sure. Luke coughed badly and suddenly blood started to pour from his mouth. Leia knew that was one of the clearest symptoms of bacta shock, and she started to look for an injection that would weaken Luke's immune system so it wouldn't destroy Luke inside out.  
Before she found it, Luke took slightly deeper breathe than before; he must have woken up.  
"Luke? Are you awake?" Leia asked almost whispering as she stepped back aside Luke.

Luke slowly opened his eyes.  
Leia smiled to him and asked: "How are you feeling?"  
Luke tried to smile back as he answered: "Terribly." He coughed and squeezed his ribcage before he continued: "My lungs, shoulder and head feel like they are in fire and everything else aches."  
Leia looked at Luke for a moment and said: "That burning feeling is caused by bacta shock, but you have lots of scratches and bruises. Did they beat you?" Leia knew exactly that they had, but she wanted to be sure.  
"Yeah, one even had an electronic whip and he used it to me. My back's still really sore."  
Leia sighed, shook her head and said: "I understand, but if I put bacta into it, it would just hurt you more. You just have to stand it." She took the glowstick and headed to the door.  
"As long as you are in that state, I won't let you leave this place. I'll go to talk to Han. We have to fix that energy consumption again."  
Leia switched off the light above Luke's head and went back to the corridor.

* * *

Han sighed and lowered his head against his hand. According to Chewie, the engines were almost gone, and Leia hadn't brought any better news; Luke's condition had turned to worse and the possibility of shutting down medbay was now an absurdness.  
"Chewie, does the hyperdrive engine work at all?" he asked, though he was almost sure what the answer would be.  
"What? Let me see it too!" he said, bounced up.  
"Leia, we still might get away from here!" he said, smiling.

* * *

A/N:  
Wow, chapter VIII! I can't believe I still manage to translate this.  
Please review! Next chapter... might even come today! Propably not, but the possibility exists.  
And I know that the name of this chapter is a cliché, but it fits.


	9. New plans

_And the disclaimer is still the same: I don't own these characters, or Star Wars._

**dlsky:** Thanks for reviewing! And thanks for telling me that mistake. I already had that trouble once, but then I removed the whole chapter and tried again later... Didn't work. I hope THIS one works.

* * *

**Chapter IX: New plans**

"We will get away from here, but not vey far. Engine is working on half-power but consumes normal – no, actually it uses doubled amount of fuel." Han said when he came from the engine room. "Besides, the fuel tank is half-empty, at most. In order to get even that far, we have to shut down everything else."  
Leia sighed. "Well, where we _could_ get?" she said.  
"Maybe… to Hoth." Han counted. "But sub-light engine isn't working properly. We could as well end up being an asteroid in Hoth's orbit."  
"Asteroid field is the place we have to get. Did I ever tell you that we had spying asteroids?"  
Han looked surprised; he thought he already knew everything about Alliance's recent actions.  
"No, you didn't. Do they have medbays in them?"  
"Almost as big as in the Echo base. We tried to keep them as independent as possible."  
Han's expression brightened and he rushed to cockpit saying to Leia: "Leia, you're a genius!"

Luke opened his eyes and tried to adjust to dark. There has been really bright in his dream, like he was standing in Tatooine's twin suns' shine, in middle of salt desert. He raised his left arm to rub away any exhaustion left in his eyes, before he remembered the wound in his shoulder. Luke was surprised, when it didn't hurt at all.  
Then he heard steps outside the door and rose carefully up to half-sitting position. When the door opened and Luke saw Leia, he lowered himself back against his bed. He didn't want to know what thing Leia had in her mind this time. He still tried to smile at her when she came in with a packed heatplanket.  
"Luke, we will soon jump into hyperspace, but to make that we have to shut down the whole ship. I don't want that you freeze in here while you are asleep, so I brought you a blanket."  
When Leia had secured the blanket, Luke smiled a bit wider and said: "Thanks." His voice though was cracking and Luke didn't sound as healthy as he felt.  
Leia touched Luke's forehead with her palm and said: "Luke, you still have unbelievably high fever. Are you sure you will manage in here?"  
Luke tried to say he was fine, but his voice actually cracked midair and Leia just ruffled Luke's hair and said: "Don't worry, you'll be fine" before Luke fell asleep.

"Ready?" Han said as he came into Falcon's cockpit. Chewie was sitting on co-pilot's chair, as usual and Leia sat back in navigator's seat. The heat and gravitation had already been shutted down, so everyone had fastened themselves tightly into their chairs.  
"Okay. Let's get us out of here!" Han added after everyone had nodded. He sat down to pilot's chair, fastened himself tightly and pulled the hyperdrive engine's lever.

* * *

**A/N:**  
Okay, if you're reading this. this chapter worked. Thank the Force for that!  
And finally they are (almost) out of trouble!  
The weekend is here! For me, at least, because if I counted right, it's still morning in USA. (It's 15:32 in UTC+2 areas, for example, Finland.)  
But back to my point: It's weekend, so I can spend more time on computer and that means more updatings!  
I really want to write this story to it's end, but when that's done, I still have lots of stories in my mind; my first story, the sequel of this story and two Anakin/Ahsoka-fics.  
I fixed some bad typos from here...


	10. Friends

**Chapter X: Friends**

"Han, Falcon is not to be flied until it's repaired!" Leia snorted to Han as they dropped back to normal space in Hoth system. The ship had been shaking during the whole trip (that had lasted twice as long as normally) and Leia had feared that the ship could fall apart any minute.  
"Oh well then! But still, show me where that asteroid is, so we can land!" Han griped back.  
Leia leaned forward to see better outside the ship.  
"I found it." she said.  
Han untied his safety belt and headed to the door.  
"Aren't you going to fly?" Leia asked.  
"Nah, I'm going to turn heat and gravity on. Besides, somebody has to check Luke."  
Leia blushed slightly as she sat to Han seat; she hadn't yet used to fly Falcon, so she mostly gave Chewie orders about where to fly.

Han had turned the heating and gravity back. He sighed in relief when his feet met the floor; he hated weightlessness. He walked from the hold to the medbay, where Luke was still sleeping.  
Han shook Luke's shoulder and said: "Hey, kid, wake up."  
Luke slowly opened his eyes and for a moment seemed a bit scared, but then his face relaxed and he said: "Oh, it's you." Luke looked far worse than Leia had told and Han could almost feel the heat radiating from Luke, though he had already removed the heatblanket.  
Luke tried to get up from bed, but Han pressed him back to his bed and said: "Leia wouldn't like that. You are still really sick. Your fever might have even risen from earlier."  
Luke looked at him with an empty and bleary glance.  
"Han," he started with his weak and hoarse voice, "don't make a fuss about it. Leia does that enough."  
Han started; had he really softened just in three years from a tough smuggler to a softie like Leia, who fusses about anything?  
"I don't make fuss about it. I just _care_ about you." Luke coughed some time to get his throat clear so he could speak, but his voice failed again.  
"Do you want water? You look like you're in need of it." Han asked. Luke nodded and Han quickly get a glass of water. He helped Luke up, removed his oxygen mask and rose the glass to Luke's lips. Luke drank greedily, like he hadn't got any water for weeks. His eyes brightened slightly and he said with almost normal voice: "Thanks. I don't remember the last time I drank something, not to mention eating…"  
Han hadn't realized until now how skinny Luke had become; Han could almost see Luke's ribs. Han noticed that Luke's arms were on goose bumps, when he handed the glass back to Han. He took Luke's brown jacket and handed it to Luke.  
"Put that on. Its cold in here, the heater might not be working properly yet." He turned to leave when Luke said behind him: "Han, thanks… Thanks for coming and rescuing me."  
"Kid, you had definitely done exactly the same" he answered.

* * *

A/N:  
And I said that I would update more during the weekend... Well, document manager refused to uplod this chapter so I couldn't update it!  
And I have no idea if "oh well then" is proper english, but it sounds right to my ears... You can complain about it.


	11. Crashing

**I love dance:** Thanks! You were actually the one who inspired me to write that chapter.

* * *

**Chapter XI: ****Crashing**

When Han was walking back to the cockpit, the ship suddenly shook violently, so he lost his balance and fell to the floor._  
What the hell?_ he thought, stood up and suddenly flied to an opposite wall as the ship made a crushing sound._  
What is happening?_ Han thought as he fell to the floor and passed out.

* * *

Luke sighed and lied down against his bed. He was cold, he was tired and his stomach rumbled louder and louder every minute. He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.  
Right when was falling asleep, _Falcon_ trembled and Luke almost fell from his bed. He though managed to grab the edge of his bed before he would have rolled over it.  
_What was __that__?! _he thought as he turned back on his back. He had just enough time to close his eyes again, before the ship shook again. The force of trembling throw Luke to a wall and back to another. Luke felt his bones cracking as he slammed to the wall. He fell to the floor and saw wall collapsing over him before he fell unconscious.

* * *

Leia closed her eyes and buried her face to her hands. She felt like she could cry; Luke had gone through same torture than she had while imprisonment on Death Star. Luke's injuries had brought the painful memories back to Leia's mind.  
Suddenly a beep from control panel awoke Leia from her thoughts. The ship trembled; the hyperdrive had had somehow been activated.  
"Chewie, did you do something?" she asked trying to deactivate the command.  
Wookie's negative answer made Leia start.  
"Well, who then…?" she said and suddenly realized. "Artoo!" she shouted and turned around. The droid had somehow activated the hyperdrive and they were going to crash to an asteroid.  
Suddenly Leia heard a huge crash behind her and she passed out as Falcon collided with a rear wall of a hangar hidden into the asteroid.

* * *

A/N:  
Oh no, trey're in trouble again! Well, maybe this was predictable, considerin who is writing this story and who are the main characters...


	12. Some broken bones

Thanks to Amy and ILDV for reviewing!

* * *

**Chapter XII:**** Some broken bones**

As she woke up, Leia felt her face was totally covered in blood. She didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't want to see all blood. She though forced herself to open her eyes. Leia saw nothing but black though she felt her head lied on her white sleeve. She slowly raised her head and saw Han in front of her.  
"Leia, are you alright? Can you hear me?" he asked, wearing the most worrying face Leia had ever seen.  
"I think so. What happened?" her voice was hoarse and quieter than normally. She carefully rose in sitting position and winced in pain; her right arm had broken ad it hurt, _a lot_. Leia shakily stood up and squeezed the broken spot with her another hand.  
Han supported Leia and helped her to main hold. There was dark in _Falcon_ and all walls seemed been twisted. Han turned one glowstick on and took a small medkit from a closet.  
"Your arm must be supported. Besides, your face is totally covered in blood." Han said and took a cut-cleansing agent. "You don't want that Luke sees you like that, do you?" He gave Leia a small mirror. Leia was shocked; she looked like she had been in a fight. There were big, bleeding cuts in her forehead and left cheek, and her face was covered with scratches and bruises. Her hair was a mess and blood had clued part of it into one lump.

As Leia concentrated to her mirror image, Han attached carefully a splint into her arm. It clearly hurt, because inhaled sharply and a tear rolled from the corner of her eye.  
Han hugged Leia and said: "Leia, it doesn't hurt anymore." Suddenly Leia turned to Han, snuggled against him and burst into crying. "Leia," Han started, "Just cry. I know that hurts." Then he realized that he had just rubbed salt to Leia's mental wounds.  
He hugged Leia a bit harder and said: "Sorry. I didn't think what I said."  
"It wasn't your fault." Leia answered between sobs.  
Suddenly she raised her head from Han's shirt, what was now bloodstained, and said: "What about Luke? Where is he? What happened to him?"  
"He's surely fine. I just hadn't had time to go and find him. But let's clean your wounds first."

When Han had cleaned all wounds, he couldn't decide whether Leia looked more or less like she had been in a fight; the big cuts in her forehead and cheek were now covered in bacta patches, but more and more bruises appeared to her face. Because of Leia's loss of blood, her face was paler than normally and Han feared that she could pass out anytime.  
"Okay, let's go and find Luke." he said and helped Leia up, who then walked slowly and faltering towards medbay. Han knew that Leia might not want to see Luke; he was probably even more injured than Leia.

The rear end of Falcon was even more crushed that the front part. Leia and Han had almost reached the medbay, but now they realized that the ceiling of the corridor was collapsed and there was a huge pile of scrap in the corridor.  
"Do we have to climb over that? Can't we go around it?" Leia asked and glanced at the pile suspiciously.  
"No, we have to go over it. Do you see that hole over there? I'll try to get it bigger so we can get to the other side." Han said and climbed to the top of the pile. He dragged some parts away from the hole and squirmed himself to the other side.  
"Well?" Leia asked.  
"Just a minute. I'll just drag this sheet away so you can climb…" A loud rumble drowned out last of Han's words.  
"Han! Han, what happened?!" She yelled and started to climb.  
"Another wall collapsed. It's not safe in there. I'll help you here." sounded from another side of the pile and Han's face appeared at the hole. He helped Leia to the other side before wiping some dirt away from his face.  
She felt a bit dizzy as she said: "Let's go. I want to find Luke. _Alive._" Suddenly all went black for her as she passed out.

Han caught Leia's unconscious body before it fell to the floor. He tried to wake her up, but found that unaffecting. He instead decided to find Luke, so he lowered Leia to the floor, made sure that she was breathing normally and then went to the medbay. The door was jammed closed, but Han kicked it few times and it fell down with a huge crash.  
"Luke?" he said as he thought that he had seen something through the dust - _and smoke?_ - floating on air. There was no answer so Han stepped in and realized that the movement he had thought he had seen was actually a flash of almost-broken light.  
He couldn't see Luke anywhere, until he realized that one wall had collapsed and Luke was probably under it. He stooped down to see if Luke was there.  
And there he was. In the back corner, surrounded by metal scraps, was Luke's lifeless body._  
Poor Kid_, Han thought as he managed to get to him. Luke seemed to be fine; he just had many cuts and bruises all over his body, but Han knew that Luke might suffer from internal injuries, so he carried Luke _very _carefully away from the cave-in and laid him down to the floor.  
Then he heard the pile collapsing down and Chewie rushed to him.  
//We have to get out of here. _Falcon_'s life support is falling apart. It won't last long until it's just vacuum in here. The starboard airlock is functional and leads straight to one corridor of that asteroid.//  
"Then we must go now. I'll carry Leia, you take Luke." Han said and lifted Leia to his arms.

* * *

A/N:  
Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had to improvise most of this chapter... Actually half of this is improvised, and not from my notebook. And that's why this is so long chapter.  
Those paraghaps go bit oddly, but I had to cut those like that when I realized that I had changed the POV from Han to Leia in middle of a paragraph....  
Please review!


	13. Horrible truths

A/N:(4-6-2010) Well, I found some embarrassing typos and I chose to fix them, and decided to join these chapters together. I will update chapter XVIII as soon as possible, but I really had a lot of troubles writing it!

* * *

**Chapt****ers XIII & XIV: Horrible truths**

Leia woke up slowly but first she realized that she was lying on a comfortable bed. She opened her, but bright white light forced her to close them immediately. The light dimmed and Leia opened her eyes again. She was in a brightly lightened white room.  
_Medbay_, Leia thought. Well, at least I'm safe. _But, what about…_

"Luke? Han?" she half-whispered, half-said. Her voice was hoarse and dry, so it didn't reach far, but at least she wasn't alone in the room: Leia heard somebody walking closer to Leia's bed.

Her sight was blurry but she recognized Han who stood beside her bed.

"Where am I? What happened?" she asked. Her throat was dry and it made Leia cough a few times.

"We're in that asteroid's medbay. You passed out before we found Luke."

Leia blinked and bounced up to a sitting position.

"Luke… Where is he? What happened to him? Is he alright?" she asked.

"He's fine. He's right beside you. But you, your Worshipfulness…" Han pushed her back against the pillow. "You will rest. You have at least two concussions, huge blood-loss and an open fracture of bone. You're not gong anywhere for a while."

Leia sighed and glanced at her arm. Her sleeve was blood-red, and it was supported with a splint. She rubbed her eyes with her left hand to clear her sight.

"Are you tired?" Han asked.

"No, it's just…" Leia shook her head. "My sight's still a bit blurry, but I think I can manage with it."

She turned her head to the right and saw Luke. He looked like he was dead; his as turned away from Leia, his shoulder was still covered in bacta, there were some new ones in his body and he wore an oxygen mask.

"What happened to him?" Leia asked again.

Han sighed. "A wall collapsed to him. He has four broken ribs and he has many concussions. And his left lung in injured by one broken rib. It's a miracle that he didn't get any more injuries."

Leia closed her eyes. She knew that she was crying, but it didn't matter. Luke had to be in horrible pains, caused by that now-days-old shoulder wound, Vader's torture and now a crashlanding.

"Leia," Han said softly, "Luke can't be in any pains. I gave him so much painkillers that he won't probably feel even his face, when he wakes up."

"Well, that's a relief," Leia said and opened her eyes. Her sight had suddenly become perfectly clear.

Han had turned away from Leia, towards Luke, and was raising his hand to touch Luke's forehead. Suddenly a warning ringed through Leia's mind.

"Don't touch him!" she shouted to Han, who quickly pulled his hand away from Luke.

"Why not? He's not in pa…" Han's voice disappeared as Luke started to scream.

* * *

When Luke finally stopped screaming and slumped back against his bed, tears were running down his cheeks. When he suddenly opened his eyes, Leia got up from her bed and walked/limped to Luke's bed. This time Han didn't even try to stop her; maybe he thought that Leia would help Luke to wake up, or something.

Leia brushed carefully Luke's cheek. At first, he didn't seem to recognize her, because he tried to avoid Leia's hand. He blinked and seemed to come to his senses.

"Han? Leia? What… What happened? Where am I?" his voice was weak and hoarse and it made Luke cough many times.

"We are in asteroidfield of Hoth. We crashlanded to one of our spying asteroids' hangar. You were lucky to survive." Leia said and wiped hairs away from Luke's forehead. She felt the heat radiating from Luke's head.

"What?" Luke asked when Leia suddenly pulled her hand away.

"You still have a fever. And it wasn't that high when I last checked it." Leia said.

Suddenly Han's comlink beeped.

"Solo." Han answered. Leia heard Chewie growling something.

"What? You found THAT?! I'll come and see myself." He shut his comlink and said top Leia and Luke: "Chewie found something really weird. I have to see it myself." He rushed out from the room and left Leia and Luke alone.

"How did you rescue me from that prison?" Luke asked.

"Don't you remember? I told it to you when you last were awake."

"I don't think I remember anything. My last memory is that somebody came into my cell, and there was a wookiee outside the door… Was that you?"

Leia was shocked; Luke had amnesia. That would just make things harder.

"You were awake at least three times after that. Don't you remember anything of them?"

"No. After that… Just nightmares. Nightmares and hallucinations."

"Because of Vader?"

"Because of Vader. He… He burned my skin and caused me to hallucinate. It's not a pleasant memory at all."

"I understand. He burned my skin, too."

"Yeah. Vader even said something like 'burning my skin like he burned my sist…'" His face turned a bit red and he turned his head sheepishly away from Leia. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Leia's eyes widened with shock.

"So, he said that you… and me are… siblings?" Leia sighed and sat down to a chair beside Luke's bed. "Oh sith… And I went and kissed you…" Leia buried her face to her hands and started to cry.

"Leia, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. It just slipped."

Leia sobbed and wiped her tears away.

"It's not your fault. You can't choose your par… family."

Luke closed his eyes and started: "And talking about our parents… Vader…" Luke passed out before he got the last words out of his mouth.

* * *

Leia wiped sweat away from Luke's forehead. It was burning and Leia knew exactly why. Luke had caught bacta flu, one of the nastiest – and deadliest – secondary diseases of bacta shock.

It caused hallucinations, loss of sense of time and place, amnesia and so on, anything that causes other people to think that patient has gone crazy.

Luke already had amnesia and some sort of loss of sense of time and place, but Leia thought that it consequence of amnesia.

Suddenly, Luke started to mumble something about Vader and father and hurting. Leia listened carefully and caught horrifying words: 'Vader, I can't… believe you… You can't… be my father…'

Leia bounced backwards and her head hit Han's chest. She turned around and said: "When did you come back?"

"Just a minute ago. Have you cried?"

Leia passed Han's question and asked: "What did you found? I thought _Falcon_ crashed completely."

"Well, I found two lightsabers. Another is definitely Luke's, but _this_…"

Han handed two lightsabers to Leia. First was surely the one that Luke had… lost on Bespin. Another was almost the same, but it was black rather than gray and there were some golden details in it. Leia was curious to know what color it was.

She ignited the black lightsaber. It was beautiful, sparkling emerald green. Leia had never seen anything like it before.

Then the green turned slowly to red, and Leia accidentally dropped the lightsaber. The blade disappeared immediately, and Han took it from the floor.

"Was that a message or something?" Han said and handed the lightsaber back to Leia. She clipped it to her belt.

"Probably. I'll ask Luke when he wakes up." She put Luke's lightsaber to a desk beside his bed.

"How's your arm?" Han asked.

"It's fine. I just hope that I could use it more freely."

"Well, maybe you can. I think bacta has already healed it. How long do you think you were out?"

"Few hours, at most."

"No. You were out half a day. Unconsciousness really messes up your sense of time."

Leia sighed and sat down. Han removed the bandage from Leia's right arm. Her hand was completely healthy, no sign of any injuries anywhere. Leia straightened her arm, and felt no pain anywhere.

"Unbelievable. It can't be healed in this short time. Unless…" Leia said.

"Unless what?"

"Unless it was the Force."

"But… You're not a Jedi. How could you use it?"

"I'm not_ yet_ a Jedi, but I think that was sub-conscious."

Han looked at her like she was crazy and almost yelled: "Not yet?! Has Luke infected you with his stupid Jedi things? Are you serious? You can't believe him just because he's a Jedi."

Leia grabbed his arm and looked him straight to his eyes.

"He's not just a Jedi, he's my _brother_."

"WHAT?!" Han yelled.

"Luke told me. And could you _please_ be quiet before you wake him up?"

"Oh, come on! He's unconscious. He wouldn't probably wake up even if this asteroid blew up!"

"Han, shut up. I _was_ sleeping." Luke said, took the oxygen mask off from his face and pushed himself up from his bed.

"Is it really true? Are you and Leia siblings?" Han asked.

"Yes. Even I was shocked when I first heard it."

"From who?" Han asked.

"From Vader. He told me when I was interrogated."

"How in hell could _he_ possibly know? He knew nothing about you, Luke, until we joined the Alliance."

Leia gave Luke a warning glance, but Luke either didn't notice it, or he ignored it.

"Well, he knew, because… Because he is…" He sighed heavily and Leia saw that Luke was trying to keep tears from running from his eyes. "Oh, forget it. It's nothing important."

Luke shook his head and dropped his gaze to floor. Han sat beside him and shook his shoulder.

"Hey, Kid, you can tell me. It can't be _that_ bad."

"It is." Luke sobbed and Leia saw that tears were now running down his cheeks.

"Hey, tell me. _Please_."

Luke raised his head, looked Han into eyes and said: "He is my father." Then he dropped his gaze again and sobbed.

* * *

Leia watched Luke in horror; she had never Luke in such a state of mind. Han looked at Luke like he was Vader himself, except that Luke was crying and sobbing uncontrollably.

Suddenly Luke chuckled, raised his head and almost laughed: "Happy now? Happy to know that your best friend is Vader's son?"

He stood up and walked towards Leia, eyes burning.

"Wouldn't it be great to rule the galaxy with your father and brother? You would get back the family you never had. Wouldn't _that_ be great?"

"Don't come closer. I'm not interested." she answered.

Luke didn't stop, but instead came closer and closer to Leia. When he was about a meter from Leia, she snapped and hit him to chest.

"I said 'Don't come closer!' Don't you understand or what?!" Leia was so angry that she didn't realize that she was using the Force. Luke flied to the other end of the room and Leia opened her eyes after a huge crash. She looked at her hands in horror and ran to Luke. She lifted his unconscious body from the floor and held his head in her hands.

"Luke-I'm-so-sorry-I-didn't-mean-it-forgive-me-please-wake-up-I-need-you-don't-die-not-now…" Leia repeated for few minutes.

Suddenly Luke inhaled sharply and opened his eyes.

"Leia, what… What happened?" he asked.

"I snapped at you. I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. And I think neither did you."

"Guess so." Luke said and tried to get up. He failed and fell back against Leia's arms. She helped Luke up and back to his bed.

"Could you leave me alone for a while? I need some time for myself right now. Every time I've woken up, either one of you has been with me."

"Sure. No problem." Han answered and left the room. Leia was about to turn, when she remembered her lightsaber.

"Luke, Han found two lightsabers on Falcon. Another was yours, but this second…" she unclipped her lightsaber and handed it to Luke. "I have no idea where it came from."

"Probably it was Vader. He's been trying to turn me to Dark side since Bespin. Actually, even now, I can hear his voice in head asking where I am. This might be some sort of a present for me… or to you." Luke said and handed Leia's lighsaber back to her. "Anything else? I really need some rest."

"No. I'll let you sleep." Leia answered and went after Han.

* * *

A/N: Well, I changed that "Highness" to "worshipfulness" because THAT's what Han really call Leia. I totally forgot it when I first wrote this chapter.

And Luke unfortunately sounds like he's getting hurt in every chapter... This is my own fault, but I just have too many good ideas about how to hurt him. Leia-hitting-Luke-to-wall is old idea, that I got when I was still writing Damages-chapters.


	14. Suicide & nightmares

A/N: (4-6-2010) Yup, another fixed chapter. Only two typos, but I had to do it.

* * *

**Chapter XV: Suicide & n****ightmares**

He woke up in the middle of the night. He had mild headache and his left lung felt like it was burning, but otherwise he was fine.  
_Where am I? Am I a prisoner? If so, why am I in this comfortable bed instead of a cold and dark cell?_

He got up from his bed and limped to the door. _(Why am I limping?)_ It was locked.

_Of course. Am I really so stupid that I even thought about that? They would never let a prisoner escape, even a stupid little…_ He blinked in surprise; he actually didn't know who he was.

_No__t good. When they realize that don't even know my own name, they're going to blow me out through an airlock._ He turned around and saw a vibra-knife on a table.

_Yeah. That should do it. Better end this myself, without any pains._

He took the vibra-knife, turned it on and cut his left wrist with it. It felt so good when the blood bled from the cut. He cut it even deeper, so that he would die faster, so that no one could shoot him.

He collapsed to his knees as unconsciousness almost took over his body. But he stayed awake and cut the wound even deeper and bigger; now the bones were almost visible.

He collapsed to the floor on his back. He dropped the knife as he heard the door opening behind him.

He passed out before he could hear a girl screaming: "LUKE!"

Leia was tired. More tired than normally. Maybe it was bacta's fault. It always made her sleepy. Her arm was prickling, but Leia decided not to scratch it.

Earlier that evening Leia had visited Luke in medbay and then put a new bacta patch to her arm, but Luke had been asleep then. Actually it was a good thing; Luke definitely needed more sleep than Leia.

Leia lied down to her bed and closed her eyes. She fell asleep almost immediately.

In her dream, Leia was standing in her room onboard _Home One_. She turned around and walked to her desk. There were three holopictures on her desk, two of them shattered; the only unbroken was Han's, but Luke's and Vader's pics were shattered. But why there was picture of Vader on her desk? Oh, yeah, he was her father.

Leia took Luke's picture from the table and started to cry. She felt like Luke was dying. But why? He was recovering well from bacta flu.

Her tears were warm as she wiped them away. She looked at her hand; it was blood-red. She dropped Luke's picture from her hand and suddenly Luke's voice started to scream in her mind.

Leia woke up, but the screaming continued. Somehow, she knew that Luke was in trouble, so she ran to medbay as fast as she could. When she reached the medbay's door, Luke's silent screaming had stopped, but a distressing feeling haunted Leia so she slammed the door's control panel.

The door swooshed open. Luke was lying on floor, left wrist bleeding heavily.

"LUKE!" Leia screamed and ran to Luke. He was smiling, like he was happy to die. Leia lifted Luke's left arm and squeezed his wrist so that bleeding would stop. It didn't stop and Leia couldn't turn her comlink on and call Han, because she had to press the wound with her both hands.

"Luke, don't die. You can fight this." she said.

Bleeding suddenly lessened and Leia could keep the cut closed with just her another hand, so she took her comlink and turned it on.

"Han! Come to the medbay immediately. Luke is injured and I can't handle it alone!"

"What? What happened to him?"

"I'll explain when you're here. Just come now!"

"Okay, okay! I'm on my way."

Leia squeezed the cut even harder to prevent Luke from bleeding to death. His face has already turned pale and his breathing was shallow, so he definitely had huge blood-loss.

Leia didn't want to lose his brother, and when Han finally arrived, Leia was almost crying.

"What? Did he… Did he attempt suicide?"

"Seems so. We have to save him."

"I know, but I can't stitch his wrist while it's still bleeding." Han said and took a medkit from the table.

The bleeding slowly lessened, but when it was on controllably level, Han quickly closed the wound and stitched it. Then he put a bacta patch to the wound and bandaged Luke's whole hand to keep it still.

"Are you sure this is enough?" Leia asked.

"Definitely. Let's lift him back to his bed."

They lifted Luke up from the floor and to his bed.

"I never realized Luke was _that_ skinny. He's almost like nothing but bone and flesh." Leia said and sighed. "I'll stay here with Luke. I don't want him to be alone after this… incident."

"Okay, but it can take hours before he wakes up. And you need your sleep too. Try not to hit yourself to something when you fall asleep."  
Leia glared at Han warningly, who just mumbled something about stubbornness and left the room.


	15. Unpleasant visitor

A/N: (4-6-2010) Some stupidities had to be fixed in this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter XVI: Unpleasant visitor**

Luke felt horrible. His head ached, his lungs felt like they were on fire, he couldn't feel his hands and his breathing made a horrible, rasping noise. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but black and white spots, mostly white. The sound of his weakly beating heart echoed in his ears.

He didn't remember where he was of what he had been doing before he had lost his consciousness last time.

"Leia?" he asked, but wasn't sure, if she could hear, because his voice was mostly just coughing.

Apparently she heard, because Luke felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you awake?" she asked. Luke almost didn't hear, and he was almost too weak to answer, but somehow he managed to nod, and it caused horrible pains all over his body.

"That's a good thing. You were out few hours, and I feared that you would never wake up again. But I must ask: what is the last thing you remember?"

Luke's sight was slowly returning, and he saw Leia sitting beside his bed.

"Clearly or even somehow?" he asked with his weak voice.

"Clear first."

Luke had to think a while before he remembered anything at all. Even after that, everything was just one, big mess with no sense at all.

"I told Han that Vader is our father. After that I remember your face and then just something red, maybe blood…"

"You've not lost much. That's even better. But were you completely on your senses, when you committed suicide?"

"What? Did I? I don't remember anything of that…" Luke's head was starting to ache even more, so he didn't talk much anymore.

"You remembered blood. You almost died. Please, don't do it again, I feared for your life."

"Okay." Luke answered just shortly, but then he passed out.

* * *

Few hours later Leia was still watching over Luke, when he sensed that something bad was going to happen. She took her lightsaber in her hand and turned towards door. Leia sensed that some_one_ was coming, someone evil.

The door suddenly swooshed open and before Leia had time to ignite her lightsaber, it flew from her hand to the table. Leia looked to the door, and Vader walked in.

"What are _you_ doing in here?" she asked coldly. "Did you come to kill me and Luke?"

Vader looked at Leia, but Leia saw no anger in his eyes, only sorrow and shame.

"I'm not her to kill you or your brother. I'm here to talk to you." He stepped in and walked to the other side of Luke's bed.

"How did you found us?" Leia asked.

"Luke sent an open need of help many hours ago. I asked him to tell where he was, and he just said that you were on Hoth asteroid field."

"But… But Luke wasn't himself at that time. He attempted suicide right then."

Vader's face fell pale and he sat down.

"I… I didn't realize that I caused so big traumas to him."

"I don't think that Luke did it because of you. When I asked him, he couldn't remember his suicide attempt. I think he had total amnesia while trying."

Vader sighed. "You're right. I'm not here just to talk. I have something that you and Luke may find useful." He handed Leia a small crystal cube.

"What is this?" she asked. She had never seen anything like it.

"It's a holocron. The Jedi used it to storage knowledge, and this one has been Yoda's long time ago. It contains at least six Jedi's memories and three prophecies."

"Prophecies?" Leia asked.

"The prophecies of Chosen One and Son of Suns. Few weeks ago I found third prophecy, what told about a girl, that nobody knew anything about, until her brother fell to the Dark Side. This girl managed to turn her fallen dad back to light and they together turned the boy back. But the losses were massive; almost whole galaxy lost in that fight."

"Is this anyhow related to me?" Leia asked.

"Actually, I have a good reason to believe that you are this 'Hidden Savior' that this prophecy is talking about. You have already lost everything in this war, your family includes Jedis and you are Luke's sister. He's dangerously close to falling to Dark Side."

"So you mean that I'm going to save this Galaxy?"

"Exactly, along with me and Luke. I'm already turned back to the Light Side. I realized it when I lied to Sidious about Luke's whereabouts."

Leia put the holocron to the table and sat down.

"You said that this holocron includes six Jedi's memories. Who were they?" she asked.

"Grand Master Yoda of the Old order, his padawan Count Dooku, his padawan Qui-Gon Jinn, my master Obi-Wan Kenobi, me and my padawan, Ahsoka Tano. All of them are now dead."

"What happened to them?"

"Well, I'm not actually sure what happened to Yoda or Ahsoka, but Dooku and Obi-Wan were killed by me and master Jinn by Sith." Vader sighed. "Ahsoka went to her last mission as a padawan; she was supposed to be knighted after that mission… But then Sidious executed Order 66, and most likely she died in that…" He sighed and took Leia's lightsaber from the table. "Is this yours or Luke's?"

"Mine. Shouldn't it?"

"Well, actually I made it for Luke. I wasn't sure if he would tell you about your relationship so I didn't put your lightsaber in Falcon." He took a silver lightsaber from his belt and handed it to Leia. "This is yours."

Leia took the lightsaber and ignited it. The blade was azure blue, like Luke's old lightsaber had been.

"Wow, it's… It's amazing." was the only thing she could say at that moment.

"I thought that you would like it." Vader answered.

At the same moment, Luke started to tremble and mumble something about wampa's and cold. Leia sighed.

"He's having nightmares again. I've always sensed it, but never known why. Now I know, but it doesn't help me at all." she said.

"Maybe… Maybe I could help him to get rid of his nightmares. Do you know what they usually concern?" Vader asked.

"Bespin, his encounter with wampa on Hoth, those at least, but what I know that he's gone through, there might also be pictures of his family burning and failures of blowing Deathstar up… But I don't want that you take those memories away. He still needs them."

"I'm not taking anything from his memory, just easing the pain that is linked to them. Would you hand that holocron to me for a minute?"

Leia gave the holocron to Vader, who then put his right palm to Luke's forehead. Luke seemed to resist him for a moment, but then he lied still and quiet in his bed.

When Vader finally took his hand off from Luke's forehead, his hand was shaking.

"Unbelievable. He's gone through so much; it's a miracle that he's still sane. Anyone else would have become insane long time ago."

"He might already be on that edge. He's been having those nightmares more and more lately. He's more tired every time I see him. I hope that he doesn't collapse completely. Alliance needs its Jedis…"

"Well, at least Luke has you and that smuggler with him. Friends are nowadays a luxury that everyone can't afford." Vader answered and looked at Luke. "He wakes up soon. It's better that I leave now before he sees me here. I don't want to shake his mind any more." He stood up and left the room without saying farewells.


	16. Mental wounds

A/N: (4-6-2010) I fixed this, too. And I added some stuff to last paragraph, it needed it.

* * *

**Chapter XVII: Mental wounds**

Only minutes after Vader had left the room, Luke woke up.

"Hi, Leia. How long was I out?" he asked immediately after opening his eyes. He felt fully recovered, except that his head ached lightly and his left wrist was _still_ hurting.

Leia turned around and answered: "About… three or four hours. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Luke tried to get up from his bed, but Leia pushed him back.

"I don't think that's a good idea as long as you have blood-loss." she said.

Luke rolled his eyes and groaned; Leia sometimes managed to be the most annoying woman that Luke had ever met.

"Leia, this is frustrating! I'm fine! I don't need you nursing me _every minute_ I'm awake!" he shouted and bounced upwards.

Leia jumped backwards and looked really frightened. Luke burst to tears and slumped back against his bed. Had he really just shouted to his sister and told her that he didn't need her? He turned away from Leia and buried his face into his hands.

"I'm… sorry…" was everything Luke could say between his sobs that had now come uncontrollable.

Leia walked around Luke's bed and sat beside him.

"It's not your fault. You're right; I've always been there when you have woken up. And I've nursed you too much. I'm the one who should be sorry." she said and brushed his hair. "Luke, I _am_ sorry. Sorry for everything that I did or didn't do for you."

Luke's sobbing lessened and he raised his head from his hands and looked at Leia.

"Really?" he asked. His voice had now become shaky, like he could start again start crying at any minute.

"Really. Come here." Leia said, pulled Luke up and hugged him tightly. "Is something wrong?" she asked as Luke sobbed again.

"No… It's just… What's wrong with me?! This is so… abnormal to me. I'm not myself anymore." he sobbed.

Leia rubbed Luke's back and rocked him gently. Luke had deep mental wounds of everything and he really needed his friends aside him.

"What… What if Alliance leaders found this out?" Luke suddenly asked.

"I really don't know yet. But before that happens, I'm not filling my mind with it." Leia answered.

Luke sighed. "I… I feel like I'm lost in a dark and there is no light to follow. Just blackness." he finally said.

"You don't have to worry. Everyone has their shadows. Maybe you've just lost the light temporarily. It will appear, just give it time." Leia said and let go of Luke.

"Everything okay now?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, I needed that." Luke answered and smiled, genuinely. That was a really good sign; if Luke could smile, he was getting better mentally, too.

Right then Han rushed to the room.

"Leia, I got the communication systems back on. What…?" he asked when he saw Luke's still tearful face.

"Nothing." Luke answered. Leia looked at him, but he just said: "You're needed elsewhere. I'll be fine in here."

"Okay, but stay in that bed." Leia said and ruffled Luke's hair. Luke looked at her half-angrily and then they both started to laugh.

* * *

"You two are unbelievable." Han said when Leia finally stopped giggling. They were now heading to the communication room, and Leia had laughed the whole time.

"What do you mean? Luke just needed some cheering up and a shoulder to cry and I gave them to him."

"No, I mean that you two can make each other laugh at anything. It's not a skill that everyone can handle."

"Well, we're siblings. That explains something."

"So you've accepted the truth?"

"Yeah, but I'm not happy with it. I understand now why Luke is so close of breaking down. He has to hide this secret every day. He can't tell it to anyone. He's afraid of what Alliance leaders will do if they found it out."

"But he told it to us?"

"That just means that he trusts us more than anyone else in this galaxy."

They walked in silence to the communication room, where Leia opened an encrypted line to _Home One_.

"_Home One_, do you copy? This is Leia Organa."

"_This is _Home One_. Good to hear about you, Organa. All leaders have been worrying about you. What happened?" _a female voice answered.

"_Falcon_ broke up. We ended up in Hoth's asteroid field."

"_We will send a ship to pick you up. Did you found General Skywalker?"_

"Yes, we did. He's at the medbay right now. He suffered some injuries while he's imprisonment. But he'll be fine in few days."

"_That's always good to hear. We can't afford to lose him in this situation. Where exactly are you in that asteroid field?"_

"We are on spying asteroid 1.22. It still has its old orbit."

"_Thank you. The ship will be there tomorrow. _Home One_ out."_

"Organa out."

"That was easy." Han said.

"Of course. I'm so high ranked that they don't ever block my messages." Leia said and frowned.

"What?"

"Luke might be in trouble again. I have to check it out."

* * *

She walked quickly back to medbay. Luke was asleep, but was seeing nightmares once again. His forehead was covered in sweat, he was whimpering and his muscles were twitching.

"Luke, wake up!" Leia shouted and shook his shoulder. Luke opened his eyes and gasped heavily. He relaxed when he saw Leia.

"Did you see nightmares again?" Leia asked

"It wasn't a nightmare. Someone tried to force its way into my mind. First I thought it was Vader, but then I realized that it couldn't be him."

"Might it have been Emperor?"

"Probably." Luke said and tried once again get up.

"Luke, how many times I have to forbid you of doing that? You're in no condition of getting up." Leia said and pushed Luke down. Luke looked at her, sulking.

"Luke, stop looking at me like that!" Leia said and rolled her eyes.

"Stop what?" Luke asked and smiled.

"Making me feel guilty. I know it already. Besides, the ship comes tomorrow to pick us up, and I think you will be able to walk then."

"Be able? I thought that you wouldn't _allow_ me to leave this bed for a while." Luke said.

"No, I had good reason to keep you in there. Your blood-loss was so massive that I don't even know if it has some far-reaching consequences. At first I thought that it would take days before you even woke up. You made a fast recovery."

"I know; I used the Force. Almost every time I seemed to be asleep, I was actually in healing trance." Luke answered.

Leia blinked. "So, if you have made that 'fast recovery', why you let me keep you in that bed, instead of just getting up and walking away?"

"You would have just ordered me back to bed, or even tied me to here. And you probably understand that I don't like being tied to anything after Vader." Luke smiled. "Besides, I don't mind that someone takes care of me. At least when I still have some space for myself."

"Oh, I understand." Leia yawned and continued: "I've been awake too long. I'm heading to bed. Try to get some sleep yourself, too. You need it."

"Okay. We'll see at the morning, then." Luke said as Leia dimmed the lights and left from the room.

* * *

A/N: I know, I know, Luke's words can be understood to have another meaning, but I didn't mean it that way. I just was reading some R-rated stuff while I was rewroting this. Actually, there's going to be a lot bigger sex-reference in last chapter, but it doesn't make this story M-rated.

I fixed some typos in chapters 7 and 14, too, and connected chapters VIII to VII and (former) chapter XIV to XVIII. I think thats enough.


	17. Jedi training & THE question

A/N: Hey, I'm really sorry that I didn't update in two and half months, but I had writer's block and school kept me really busy. I hope this chapter redresses long break. And thanks for everyone who reviewed!

* * *

**Chapter XVIII: Jedi training**** & THE guestion**

Luke couldn't sleep that night; he was too tense to relax. What the Alliance leaders would say if they knew that Luke and Leia were Vader's children? What would Luke and Leia do if they were kicked out of Alliance? Luke had no idea. He had already "forgotten" his past on Tatooine and his family was now the Alliance. If they just dumped him and Leia because they were some sort of a "treachery" to Alliance, Luke wouldn't know what to know. Han and Leia would know, but Luke couldn't trust them to take him with them.

Luke harbored these thoughts many hours until Leia came back. She had apparently slept the whole night, because there was no sign of fatigue on her face and she was shining her normal energy.

"Luke, our transport's arrived. Get up so we can get going." she said and almost pulled Luke from his bed.

Luke pushed Leia's hand away; he didn't need her help to get up from bed. He was actually tired of just resting in bed all day. He got up and took some shaky steps towards the door. Then he had to take some support from the table beside him to prevent himself from collapsing.

"Luke, are you okay? Can you walk?" Leia asked worriedly and was about to help Luke when he shook his head and sighed.

"I'm fine. I just… My muscles are not as strong as before, but I can still walk." he said and turned to Leia.

"Are you sure you don't need help? I can help you." Leia said and looked at Luke with concern in her eyes.

"No, Leia. Really, I don't need help." Luke said, smiled and started walking again. His steps really were a bit shaky but the longer he walked, the more strength he got and when he and Leia reached the lower hangar of the asteroid, Luke was walking almost normally.

"Commander!" Wedge shouted as he stepped out from the shuttle and saw Luke. He run down the ramp of the shuttle and welcomed Luke with a big hug.

"Nice to see you too, Wedge." Luke answered and hugged Wedge back.

"Where's Solo? I thought that he was with you." Wedge asked from Leia.

"He and Chewie went to dig Artoo out of _Falcon_'s remains. We need that droid. They should be here soon."

"Good. I don't want to be here any longer than is necessary."

"Neither do I." Han said as he came to the hangar. "We're ready. Let's get going." He and Chewie carried parts of Artoo in their arms.

"Did you get all of it?" Leia asked.

"I suppose so, but can't be sure."

They walked to the shuttle and Han and Chewie dropped Artoo's pieces to the corner. They would fix it on their way back to the fleet. Wedge, Leia and Chewie headed to the cockpit and Han was about to do the same when he felt Luke tapping his shoulder.

"Can I have a word?" he asked.

"Sure. Is something wrong?"

"Well… Not exactly. Han… I'm sorry about _Falcon_."

"You don't have to be. It wasn't your fault."

"But it was! If I hadn't been caught, you wouldn't have needed to come after me. If I…" Luke trailed off and started to cry.

"Luke, I don't blame you. And neither should you. It was Artoo, not you. The Imps had corrupted it with some assassination program and it tried to kill us. It had absolutely _nothing_ to do with you."

Luke sobbed and already calming down when his breathing suddenly became labored and fast. He grasped his neck like he couldn't breathe and looked at Han.

"Luke, calm down. You're hyperventilating. Take deep breaths, it helps."

"I'm… trying…" Luke said between his gasps. Even as he tried, he couldn't calm down and passed out and collapsed to Han's arms.

"Not again…" said Leia who had just came back from the cockpit. "I thought he was fine."

"He suddenly started to hyperventilate. Probably something mental. Where can I lie him down?" Han asked and lifted Luke up to get a better hold on him.

"The medbunk's over here. Should I scan him?" Leia said although she had already taken medscanner from a closet.

"Do so. He seemed to be in pains." Han said and stepped away so that Leia could run the test on Luke. "I'll say Wedge that hurries with this ship."

"You don't have to. We're already on hyperspace and it takes just an hour or two to the fleet." Leia said and slapped her hand to her mouth.

"What? Is something wrong with him?"

"About everything. I was fool when I let him get up from bed. He… With these wounds, he shouldn't even be awake." Leia said and shivered. "His ribs are broken, his another lung is damaged, almost all his bones have fractures and he's got at least ten concussions. I… I don't get it. How could he seem so healthy when he was this injured?"

"Can we treat those wounds?" Han asked. He was as shocked as Leia from the information that Luke's condition was so serious.

"I don't think so. I think that the best thing we can do is to keep him still and not let him hurt himself more." Leia sighed. "Well, maybe we could put an oxygen mask to his face to ease his breathing."

"That's what I was thinking." Han said.

* * *

Luke thought that he was dying; he couldn't feel his body and he felt like he was totally in different place. But he was floating on something and he felt pain, so he couldn't possibly be dead.

He slowly opened his eyes. So, he wasn't dead. But he didn't feel like he was alive, either. As his sight focused, he realized that he was in a bacta tank. Luke didn't see very well, but he discerned two or three persons outside the medbay. _Just like on Hoth._ But was he still safe? He tried to reach out with the Force, but failed. He could just felt that there was no anger in persons around him. And one of them was bit scared. But there was no threat. _Okay, everything's fine now. _Luke thought and let himself to float back to the darkness.

* * *

Three days since their return from Hoth and Luke still hadn't woken up. Leia was now really concerned and had told the medics to inform her immediately if Luke showed any sign of waking up. Beside this, she had spent all her free time sitting beside Luke's bed. The medics had kept Luke in bacta tank for a day, and after that Luke was physically fine, he just had to wake up.

Leia was once again sitting beside Luke's bed. It was almost midnight and everyone was sleeping in their rooms. That was good because if Luke woke up, no one could hear their conversation.

"Leia, you should go to bed. Even you need some rest." Han said behind her. He had come to tell Leia not to worry about Luke. He would wake up in time.

"But I can't leave him. What if he wakes up and panics because he doesn't know where he is?" Leia said and turned around. She still rested her right hand on Luke's palm so she would feel if Luke stirred even a little.

"He won't. He's a Jedi, remember?"

"But I still can't just leave him here." Leia said turned back to Luke. Han sighed silently; Leia really was stubborn.

"Okay, I'll let you stay here, but try not to fall asleep. I don't want to carry you back to your quarters." Han said and left.

Few hours later, Leia was still waiting for Luke to wake up. Few times Luke had stirred a little, but hadn't really woken up. Leia sighed once again; she had lost count of them about an hour ago. Suddenly, Luke frowned slightly and slowly opened his eyes.

"Leia? Where… Where am I?" he asked with a dry, weak voice.

"We're on medbay of _Home One_. You got worse injuries than I thought at first."

"How long I've been out?"

"Three days, and if I counted right, since Dantooine you've been unconscious for over seven days in total."

Luke blinked. "That's… That's a lot." was all he managed to say.

"It sure is. I was really worried. Do you need anything?"

"Just sleep. My head still hurts and I'm really tired. And you should really go to bed yourself, too." Luke said and yawned. "Hey, come back tomorrow, when we're both well rested."

"Yeah. I'll come back tomorrow." Leia said, stood up and walked to her room. She collapsed to her bed and fell asleep immediately.

* * *

Luke was allowed to leave the medbay three days later, but even then someone always seemed to be right behind him, ready to take him back to medbay for even the slightest reason. Luckily for Luke, Leia wasn't one of these persons anymore. Apparently she had learned that on Hoth.

"It's really frustrating!" Luke whined to Leia few days later. He was now walking like nothing had ever happened, but Leia still saw some wobbling in his steps.

"I understand, Luke, but they just want to be sure you really are healthy." Leia said. She thought that this was a good moment to give Luke back his lightsaber. They walked to Leia's office and Leia opened the door.

"Come in. I have something that belongs to you." Leia said mysteriously, though Luke probably knew what Leia was going to give him.

Leia walked around her desk and opened one drawer. Luke's lightsaber was on top of everything else, so Leia simply took it and handed it to its rightful owner, Luke.

"I thought this was yours." Luke said as he took the saber.

"No. Va… Father gave me my own." Leia said and showed her own to Luke.

"When?" Luke asked and shivered; the thought of Vader close him and Leia was… scary.

"On Hoth. He came few hours after your suicide attempt. We talked a lot then and he gave me my lightsaber. He left just before you woke up."

"What? Vader was there? How couldn't I sense it?" Luke boggled.

"You were asleep." Leia wanted to stop talking about Vader, so she asked: "Anyway, could you… Could you teach me how to use my lightsaber? I think that now when I have it, I should be able to use it without hurting myself, too."

Luke grinned. "Good point. I need some exercise myself, too."

* * *

Han turned the small red box in his hands. At first, this had felt like a good idea, but as he closed to Leia's office, it had become stupider and stupider every minute.

He was now on the door of Leia's office, about to knock, when suddenly the door opened and Han barely managed to hide the box in his hand. Leia was standing right in front of him.

"Hi! What you're doing here? I thought you were trying to get a new ship for you." she said like she was surprised that Han came to her office. Luke was standing behind Leia and rubbed back of his left hand. When he saw Han, he stopped and tried to be like nothing had ever happened.

"Um, did I interrupt anything? I can come later…" Han asked.

"No, no. Come in. We were just sparring." Leia said and let Han enter the room.

The door closed behind them, and Han decided that this was the right moment. He prepared to open the box, and as Leia turned around to speak Han, he kneeled, opened the box and asked: "Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

Leia was astonished and blinked few times before answering. "O… Of course!" she finally said and hugged Han. When she let go, Han slid the ring to Leia's ring finger. The ring was made of solid gold, and it had two small diamonds on it.

Leia hugged Han again and whispered: "I love you, Han Solo."

"I love you, too." He answered.

* * *

A/N: As I said, it was THE question. I rewrote this chapter once before I finished, because I was disappointed with text I already had written. I think this is better than the original version. If I don't update the last chapter here in... four weeks, you can send me angry PM if you like.

Reviews welcomed!


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